How the Hate Started
by Katie D
Summary: Basically the title says it all. This is a Snape-fic.


A/N-I hope this doesn't confuse anyone, I wrote it kind of late, so I might have screwed up some of the tenses and stuff. Basically it starts with Snape in almost present time, and then it's him remembering back to his seventh year. BTW, for the something like two people who liked my fic "What Happens Next?" I'm sorry I haven't posted more, but it's on hold until I figure out what's happening in it. On to the fic~ 

Harry Potter. Potter. _Why didn't I think about it? The boy who lived. I should have know he'd be here one day._ Severus Snape looked down again at his class list for the new school year. Not Potter, anyone but him. He thought about the one picture he'd seen of the boy, ten years ago in the Daily Prophet. Green eyes, like Lily. Lots of black hair like his father. Damn him. 

Severus allowed himself to think back almost twenty years, his seventh year at Hogwarts. His sister Serena was fifteen, in her sixth year, his ward since his parents had died the last summer, just after he'd turned eighteen. He should have seen it coming, he should have known, but he didn't.

She was always talking about him, 'James Potter, that cute Gryffindor seeker,' 'James Potter, the gorgeous head boy.' He thought she was just trying to agitate him, just like a little sister, pretend to moon over the man that he, Severus, hated. James was eighteen, Quidditch Captain, loved by almost every girl at Hogwarts, she must be joking, and even if she wasn't, she had no chance. 

His little sister was beautiful, like his mother. She was smart and sweet and an honest person and a hard worker. If they hadn't been there for each other when his parents died he doubted they would have gotten through it, but he didn't think James would ever like her. No, James would like simpering, beautiful, bubble-head Quidditch fans who lived to serve him, he couldn't like anyone who was simply kind and decent.

How he regretted his mistake now. Twenty years later he still regretted the fact that James Potter thought he was a Quidditch god, above all rules, not caring about anyone else. It was the middle of his seventh year when he heard the rumors, the guys in his dorm razzing him because his 'baby sister was dating the Gryffindor seeker'. He felt his face turning red at the memory. What they had implied, his sister, his responsibility. He'd kept his mouth shut. It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. He wouldn't accept it. Now the guilt racked him. If he would have believed them, would have talked to her. Instead he never told her that he'd heard that. He didn't want to embarrass himself or her telling her what some guys were saying. They weren't saying it anymore anyway, through the grapevine he'd made it known that anyone talking about his sister could expect to get his head knocked in.

It was March of that year when she'd come to him. March the twelfth he remembered, because it had been exactly one month before her sixteenth birthday. He could still hear her saying the words, he lay his head back on his chair as her voice filled his head. "I'm pregnant. Two months. I want to have the baby."

"You WHAT?!? Who's the father?" Snape would kill anyone who had gotten his sister pregnant. "You can't! You're only fifteen! You still have a year before graduating. You can't have a baby!" 

"Half my classes have been seventh year level this year Sev! I could take the N.E.W.T.S. at then end of this year and pass them all with flying colors, you know that!" She got quieter. Looking near tears, she whispered the answer to his original question, "James Potter. We've discussed it. I have the credits and ability to graduate this year. If you sign, we can get married after the term's over."

For a few moments he was stunned, muttering to himself, "I didn't believe it, she wouldn't." Then he grew angry, his hate for Potter beginning to overshadow his love for Serena. "No! I refuse! You'll get an abortion, and I'll have that bastard put in jail! How could you do this? He's that low, but you should know better! Our parents raised you better!" As he paused for a breath in his tirade, fully prepared to continue reprimanding her for several hours to come, she fled.

He didn't see her for the next two days. He knew she was going to classes, as a prefect he got a list of students in his house who did not attend, but she was avoiding him. He didn't try to see James. He thought there was a good possibility that he would try to kill him, and seeing him in jail and expelled was a prospect he didn't want to miss. He just had to convince his sister that the man was a good-for-nothing lout. At breakfast on the third day a school owl dropped a letter on his plate.

Severus,

I spoke to Professor Dumbledore today. He has agreed to allow me to graduate at the end of this term. I did not tell him about

James, and he asked no questions. Seeing as he is the headmaster it would be his duty to report him to some authority I don't believe he wanted me to tell him. I'm sure he knows, he seems to 

know everything that goes on at this school, but I don't want

to put him in the dilemma of having to tell someone if I myself

told him. I hope that you will follow this example and not try to prosecute James. Seeing as you will get no testimony from me, I think any charges would be useless. I hope you can

forgive James and understand that I love him. If you can, I am willing to forgive you. I understand that I gave you quite a shock, and I'd like to speak to you if you feel you can without screaming at me. I realize that this was not model behavior and we could have 

been more responsible. There's nothing we can do now. I 

don't believe this is a bad thing. Please think about me.

Love,

Serena 

She didn't understand how angry I was. She thought I could forgive James just because she loved him. I almost wish I could have now. I might have seen her before... He stopped. It was no use thinking about ifs. His sister had died and it was all that Potter's fault.

It was the very night after he'd gotten the note. He wanted another day to think about how to speak to her, how to get across to her that she'd been seduced, that she was an innocent taken advantage of by a monster who was three years her senior. He knew his sweet little sister, thinking for herself would never have done what she did. 

It was almost midnight when someone had shaken him awake. It was the Slytherin head of house Professor Crumplins. "Severus, wake up. It's your sister." Severus sat straight up in his bed. He pulled on his robe and followed Professor Crumplins to the infirmary. When he got there he could see James Potter sitting in a chair, but Madame Pomfrey stopped him from advancing further. "There wasn't anything I could do." She didn't give an explanation, and if she did Snape didn't hear it. 

James came over to him, "She just passed out. I don't know what happened." He seemed to be talking as much to himself as Severus, his cheeks tear-stained and his eyes brimming.

Snape just sat in a chair, staring straight ahead, unable to comprehend that his baby sister was dead, and because of the man standing in front of him, the last words he'd spoken to her had been in anger. That, was why he hated James Potter.

A/N-Okay guys, they don't belong to me. That's the disclaimer part. Flame me if you must, and I think you might want to after this, but it's my explanation for why Severus hates James and likes to go on and on about him breaking rules. I realize this is kind of strange, and I kind of played with the ages to fit my whims, sorry, it's fanfic, so I'm allowed. I hope no one's totally disgusted. Thanks for reading and please review. 


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